1. Project description : What is Yuyay Qente?

Many locations in the central jungle of Peru are characterized by two main issues: the progressive deforestation of the Amazon as an environmental issue; and the lack of quality education for children in the Peruvian jungle. As a response to that in Sacha Q’ente, Cuzco, there is a small community of teachers, forestry workers, and volunteers who have created an alternative school for children that encourages them to learn and take care of nature. Yuyay Q’ente is the name for the community project that integrates the local alternative school and a series of landscape interventions in the Amazon that create interactive scenarios for learning outdoors. By creating this plan with the community, we seek to improve the environment for the children of Sacha Q’ente and the communities in the surroundings, promote the learning for using the local material bamboo to build responsibly in the jungle and integrate key actors to benefit the exploration of new ways of learning.

2. Project progress up to now

Our team has organized activities with three main objectives that work just as a tree starts to grow: First, to deepen; then, to nurture; and finally, to share. 
As part of these 3 months, we have finished the first “deepen” stage and are currently in the nurture stage. As part of this, we had our first field trip from May 26th to May 30th. The rest of the progress of the project is being made using virtual tools such as Zoom and Miro collaborative platforms. This way we can integrate the work of volunteers from 4 different cities, and keep constant communication with the community in Cusco. Here is our progress during these months:

Education and Social Sciences Team

The main objective of the team during the first stage was to compile and understand the past learnings:
-Learning from the Summer school “Yuyay Q’ente”: The community held ecological workshops that were very important to understand to plan the next events, map the interests of children, and summarize the learned lessons. In order to collect this information, our team organized three interviews with the teachers of summer school and a playful session with children to get to know their opinions.
-Learning form Alternative Education: Yuyay Q’ente school has an alternative method related to nature: In order to get to know better this methodology and the activities of children, our team identified other local alternative schools in Cusco and organized video calls with Luna Wasi School, Error Pedagogia, and Ticapata School. All this information will be organized as a “Catalog of Alternative Education in Nature for the Amazon Schools.”

Moreover, since the project could benefit the nearby communities, the team also visited the “Maria Natividad Honor” school, the biggest one in Kosñipata. The collected information helped to understand the logic of learning in the Peruvian jungle, the daily way from home to school for children, and to better comprehend the identity of children in Kosñipata: an Andean and Amazon identity. 

Landscape Team

Sacha Q’ente community has an afforestation plan to apply to their whole terrain so they can plant diverse tree species in the Amazon. Our team had an interview with the Forestry Team led by Pio Vucetich; so we could understand the planting model of a “Primary Forest” applied in the whole Sacha Q’ente, which mixes various models of plants to maintain the biodiversity of the environment and preserve the richness of the ground.
The field trip was a great opportunity to get to know the variety of plants and animals of Sacha Q’ente. During the field trip, our team held sessions for identifying the species of plants and birds as a measure of biodiversity.
Learning from this, the team is currently making a “Sacha Q’ente\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s Biodiversity Catalog \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\' which includes the 22 most representative species identified on the field trip and categorizes them by the different uses that the community gives them. It also consists of 6 species of seen birds during the workshops for bird identification. The objective of this catalog is to serve as a learning tool for the community. It includes the forestry workers, the children during field visits, and any visitors to the Sacha Q’ente community.

Infrastructure Team

Sacha Q\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ente community has worked on reforestation for years and aimed a culture of sustainable development within its community. It is important to mention that they had plantations of bamboo growing up in the forest for more than ten years. Hence, it was important for the community to harvest and give use to them. With our support, it became a reality. We contacted specialists in this material to teach us about the harvest, treatment, use, and construction of this sustainable material; moreover, we conducted parallel teams in order to achieve the goals of the project:

• The design team: 
  The team had three video calls with the community and re-designed the modules according to their feedback. Their comments were crucial for understanding the dynamics and the environment where we would intervene. This new process included a more detailed design considering the available resources and logistics. This team works from different cities and is designing the master plan for Sacha Q\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ente, and the seed project plan.

• The Construction Team:
  The harvesting process was conducted virtually by the Learning Landscapes Team and executed by the forestry workers, volunteers of Sacha Q\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ente, and parents of the children who study at Yuyay Q\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ente school. By this moment, the community has had eight field journeys to identify the area for cultivation, cleaning the road, harvesting, and cleaning the bamboo. Thanks to this work, 120 Common bamboo and 70 Gigant bamboos were collected.
  During July, our team bought the mineral salts for the impermeabilization treatment of bambu, and as part of the work of the past week, the first part of bamboo was treated. By using bamboo as the main material, these were some of the objectives achieved:
  -The plantations of bamboo were harvested and are going to be used for community infrastructure.
  -The community is currently learning to use bamboo as a building material for simple play structures.
  -The community learned, in a practical way, how to extract and give maintenance to the bamboo so they can harvest another bamboo in the future for other possible uses.
  -Sacha Q\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ente community can develop as builders and producers of bamboo in the Kosñipata Valley to be a model of production, construction, and bamboo care.

 

Communication Team

During this time, the communication team has compiled information about the environmental value of Sacha Q\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ente in order to raise awareness about its natural values. During this first stage, the research is going on as well as the planning for the social media post for Facebook and Instagram.
During the field trip, the team collected multiple videos highlighting the point of view of the people who work in Sacha Q\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ente. These videos and the interviews are future base materials for the educational posts.
One of the most valuable moments for the team was the interview with Edgardo, a vet who has lived in Sacha Q\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ente for three years and now volunteers as a teacher at Yuyay Q\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ente School with the class of Environmental Sciences. His practical knowledge of the place and the different kinds of vegetation is a great input for children and something we want to communicate to the people who do not know this place. 

Another important event realized by the Communication team was the \"Group Forum about Learning in the Amazon \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'. This event was conducted by the Learning Landscapes team in the UNSAAC University of Cusco who collaborated with our team. It was an open event attended by young volunteer groups, local institutions, students, and teachers from the city of Cusco. This event was also a way to introduce the work of the Learning Landscapes team to Cusco city, as a result, our team was able to convene more local volunteers, start the discussion about the relation between architecture and education, and connect different institutions. Some of the attendants were: Marcel Boesch from the a lternative Democratic School, Ruwaq Volunteer group, Deriva Alternativa Volunteer group, and Tikapata Eco-School. 

3. Project plan forward

The project has new challenges to come:
Firstly, we want to contact the educational and public institutions of Kosñipata. This way, we can map possible support for the implementation of the project. Now that the design of the modules is more detailed, we plan to contact the Architects\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\' Association of the city of Cusco for future alliances.

At the beginning of this project, we were planning to build the whole project only in a continued journey during a Construction week. However, as we were acquiring the materials and starting with the first tasks, we understood that the development of this project would work better if we organized multiple working journeys. There, our team can send volunteers to join or lead the Sacha Q\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ente group, and we can form a team in charge of various tasks with different implementation times.

Something that did not go as we expected was the cost of enabling bamboo as a construction material. Issues such as obtaining the mineral salts for bamboo treatment and the habilitation of the road for mobilizing the bamboo led to other types of expenses and logistics management in planning times.
As the Learning Landscapes team, we have noticed the great initiative and organization of the Sacha Q\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ente community. Because of that, we are convinced that with all those new learnings, the Sacha Q\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ente community has gained experience and will know how to handle similar processes and projects in the future as an empowered community.

Thank you Korea SHE Foundation for making this possible!